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FDA Bans Candy- and Fruit-Flavored Cigarettes

Step is first under new tobacco law

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 23, 2009

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The Food and Drug Administration has put a ban on cigarettes with flavors characterizing fruit, candy, or clove as part of a national effort to reduce smoking in America.

Smoking is the nation's leading preventable cause of death.

The FDA says its ban on candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes highlights the importance of reducing the number of children who start to smoke, and who become addicted to dangerous tobacco products. The agency is also examining options for regulating both menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes.

"Almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. "These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers."

Flavors make cigarettes and other tobacco products more appealing to youth. Studies have shown that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25.

"Flavored cigarettes attract and allure kids into lifetime addiction," said Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H. "The FDA's ban on these cigarettes will break that cycle for the more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily."

The FDA is taking several steps to enforce the ban. A letter recently sent to the tobacco industry provided information about the law, and explained that any company who continues to make, ship or sell such products may be subject to FDA enforcement actions.

Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, calls the ban "a critical step to end one of the most insidious tactics the tobacco industry has used to target and addict children." He says the Campaign is pleased that the FDA has put tobacco companies on notice that it is prepared to take aggressive action against attempts to evade the new law.

"The new flavoring ban," Myers concluded, "is one of many actions authorized by the law that will protect kids from tobacco addiction, stop tobacco companies from deceiving the public and reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use."

The FDA also has made available an advisory to parents on the risks associated with flavored tobacco products.

"Youth are twice as likely to report seeing advertising for these flavored products as adults are," said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a pediatrician and the FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner. "Marketing campaigns for products with sweet candy and fruit flavors can mislead young people into thinking that these products are less addictive and less harmful."

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